Boston College is retaining head coach Bill O’Brien despite a 2-10 finish this season.
O’Brien, who was Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022, went 7-6 and reached the Pinstripe Bowl in his first season with the Eagles. However, B.C. endured a 10-game losing streak this season before finishing the year before with a 34-12 victory over Syracuse.
“The 2025 Boston College football season has come to an end, and I share the great disappointment of many students, faculty, and staff as well as alumni and fans around the world,” athletics director Blake James wrote in a letter to Boston College “friends and family” posted on the school’s website. “While the team ended the season on a positive note by defeating Syracuse 34-12, the overall results on the field this year did not meet the standards of Boston College Athletics, nor the expectations rightfully held by those who care deeply about our program.
“Like many, I believe Coach O’Brien is the right man to be our head coach. I also realize that Boston College must respond to major changes taking place in intercollegiate athletics, including the House legal settlement, which created a framework through which colleges and universities may directly share revenue with student-athletes. While our Athletics program participated in revenue sharing this past year, effective immediately, it will increase its commitment to the maximum permissible level, putting it in line with our Autonomy Four conference peers. The University is committed to supporting football with the resources necessary to compete while maintaining its longstanding academic and ethical standards.”
James added that Boston College would make “significant investments in operational and administrative support for football.” The school also announced the hiring of general manager Kenyatta Watson, a former Eagles player who was most recently assistant general manager at Auburn.
The 55-year-old O’Brien is 24-25 in four seasons as a college head coach, including a 15-9 mark at Penn State in 2012 and 2013. He won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award in 2012 for his work with the Nittany Lions, who were hit with massive NCAA sanctions — many of which were later overturned — in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
O’Brien was also head coach of the NFL’s Houston Texans from 2014-20, going 52-48 with four AFC South Division titles (but no playoff wins). He was fired four games into the 2020 season, after which Nick Saban hired him to run the Alabama offense and coach its quarterbacks.
Alabama reached the College Football Playoff National Championship game in O’Brien’s first season, in which quarterback Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy. The Crimson Tide had a disappointing 11-2 finish in 2022, however, with O’Brien criticized for not getting enough out of star players such as running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
O’Brien spent the 2023 season with the NFL’s New England Patriots and was briefly Ohio State’s offensive coordinator during the 2023-24 offseason, but left that February to take over at Boston College. He has also worked as an assistant at Brown (his alma mater), Georgia Tech, Maryland, Duke in addition to two separate stints with the Patriots.
